Hundreds of British Tamils gathered at Downing Street in London yesterday, to commemorate the 35^th anniversary of the Black July pogrom.

Human rights activists have expressed concern about the mistreatment of a disabled former LTTE cadre, who is currently being chained to a hospital bed to receive treatment for injuries sustained in prison.

^{File photograph: Ben Emmerson in Sri Lanka last year (Sunday Times)}

 Sri Lanka’s progress towards reform has “ground to a virtual halt” with Tamils on the island “stigmatised and disenfranchised”, concludes a United Nations report on the country’s human rights record.

The report by the former Special Rapporteur on countering terrorism Ben Emmerson, says that “none of the measures so far adopted to fulfil Sri Lanka’s transitional justice commitments are adequate to ensure real progress”.

Sri Lankan police have been accused of failing to investigate the discovery of human bones in Chemmani, Jaffna.

The bones were discovered on Friday when excavation work for a water tank was underway in the area.

Families of the disappeared in Mullaitivu, who protested for 500 days continuously seeking the whereabouts of their missing loved ones have created an office for relatives of the forcibly disappeared.  

"Our struggle is not over. Only the battlefield of protest and the form [of the protest] have changed," said the families of the disappeared. 

"Only when there is an answer for our loved ones will this come to an end," they stressed. 

A Sri Lankan army officer was arrested in Vavuniya on Saturday after he was caught by local residents trying to use a stolen ATM card to withdraw money.

The officer, whose name remains unknown, is believed to be 41 years old and attached to Mullaitivu army camp. 

He was found with 85,000 rupees on his person. 

A Black July commemoration was held by the Tamil National People's Front today.

Marking 35 years since the pogrom of Black July 1983, PEARL called for justice for historic and recent genocides. 

"On the 35th anniversary of the start of “Black July” 1983, PEARL remembers the Tamil victims, survivors, and generations affected by all of Sri Lanka’s atrocities against the Tamil people. Thirty-five years ago this week, the government of Sri Lanka sponsored a brutal anti-Tamil pogrom, tantamount to genocide, that killed more than 3000 Tamils."

"In honor of the dead and in solidarity with the surviving victims of anti-Tamil pogroms and massacres, PEARL calls on states to recognize the Black July and 2009 atrocities as genocide. We ask states to exert pressure on Sri Lanka to demilitarize the North-East and implement strict vetting processes to keep known genocidaires and other human rights violators out of the security forces. We further urge states to impose sanctions on Sri Lanka until it establishes a special judicial mechanism with foreign judges, prosecutors, and lawyers to investigate and prosecute atrocities, including genocide, in accordance with its commitments made in Resolution 30/1."

The Prime Minister of Canada joined Tamil-Canadians and the Tamil community around the world to mourn and remember the Tamils killed in the Black July anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka.

“On this day, we remember the victims of the 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka that took thousands of lives and displaced so many from their homes,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement marking the 35th anniversary of Black July.

The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) on Sunday opened a new branch in Trincomalee district. 

The party's president Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam attended the launch event along side party members and supporters. 

The Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research highlighted the lack of accountability for the killings that took place during the pogrom of Black July 1983. 

In a statement that marks 35 years since the massacre, ACPR said, "35 years have passed and to date, there has been no accountability for this horrific week of genocidal violence, nor even an attempt at an official apology or comprehensive reparations to the Tamil community for the insurmountable losses it suffered and continues to suffer."

"1983 was a symptom of the deeply Sinhala Buddhist state. A systematic answer to 1983 should have led us to a retransformation of the state along plurinational lines. But the contrary was true. As we speak about ‘transitional justice’ today it is important to remember that no one has been brought to book for the 1983 atrocities. No accountability, no truth telling, no reparations and hence recurrence at a genocidal scale. The Sri Lankan government’s continued failure to address the atrocities of Black July is symbolic of its larger failure to address impunity, the Tamil question, and the root causes of the conflict."

Students and staff at the University of Jaffna today held a remembrance event to mark 35 years since the pogrom of Black July in 1983. 

Over 3000 Tamils were massacred during the pogram which saw Sinhala mobs target Tamil homes and businesses, looting and ransacking property, as well as rounding up Tamils and burning them alive.

The head of Sri Lanka’s military visited a Buddhist temple in Amparai last month, where monks praised the military in religious ceremony held for the army.

A boat belonging to Tamil fishermen was destroyed by a group of unknown persons, as tensions continue to escalate between Tamil and Sinhalese fishermen in the region.